


Once a Playboy, Always a Playboy.

by stanky_plums



Series: Cheating Avengers [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Cheating, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Insecurity, Marvel Universe, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Natasha Romanov, Reader-Insert, Sad Ending, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Tags Are Hard, plus sized reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 12:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17325338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stanky_plums/pseuds/stanky_plums
Summary: You were in a loving three-year-marriage with Tony Stark, until a car accident and 8 months in a hospital reveals secrets that show his true self.





	Once a Playboy, Always a Playboy.

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case ye don't know already:  
> [Y/F/N] = Your full name  
> [Y/N] = Your name
> 
> But don't worry, I tried not to use them too much - I know how distracting they can be sometimes :)

_You let out a gasp seeing your soon-to-be-husband walk into the bride’s dressing room. “Anthony Edward Stark, you are not allowed to be in here!”_

  
_He unwraps the arms that you’ve hugged around yourself in an attempt to hide your dress from him. “And why is that, [Y/F/N]?” he asks quaintly, obviously knowing why he shouldn’t be in the same vicinity as you with your dress on._

  
_“Because, my lovely fiance, it’s unlucky for a groom to see his bride in her dress before the wedding.”_

  
_“Oh is that so? Well then I guess this marriage is doomed already, huh?” he snickers and places a kiss on your forehead._

  
_“I guess,” you laugh back and before you know it he’s poured the both of you a glass of champagne and led you to the couch._

* * *

 

You thought, despite the bad luck he’d put upon the both of you on your wedding day, that you had what was the perfect marriage with Anthony Edward Stark. The both of you being together for three years, you’d gotten into the groove of things. You had opened yourself up more for him.  
Before you met him, you were insanely insecure of yourself; always letting your slight pudginess get in the way of seeing the whole picture - that the excess fat was a whole part of your quite curvy self. Before you met Tony, the thought of wearing bikinis or pieces of lingerie always made you overwhelmed. But the way he treated you like the perfect woman, gave you the confidence to expose your stomach in front of him. Due to your insecurity, your body was literally for his eyes only.

In your second year, the two of you got into the flow of domestic life. You would do the work at home and he would come back at 8 pm sharp to have dinner and spend the rest of the night with you.  
However, in your third year together, you got into a car accident. Some drunken lowlife was driving on the wrong side of the highway and as a result, hit your car - really, it was Tony’s car - head on. The airbags took away most of the force that probably would have snapped your spine straight in half, but you were still left in a coma for about a week and… lets just say it was a long journey getting your legs working and back in shape again.

The whole accident ended up taking you 8 months to heal. You felt very much cared for in the first 58 days of your hospitalization. Everyday, you would have dinner with Tony. He would bring you your favourite flower - a single rose - for every single time he came to visit; which is how you knew he only came every day for 58 days.  
Every day after the initial 58 days, he was abruptly gone. He would never read your text messages, never take your calls, and when you asked Dr. Cho or the rest of the team where he was, they all said they hadn’t seen him around much. Everyday now was just a waiting game to see when he’d come back again. Spoiler: he never did.  
At times, mostly when you trying to/pretending to sleep, you would see the hospital trainees give each other money at the end of the day. You knew they were betting on the next day Tony would be back.

Spending a lot of time alone in the hospital bed with your legs lifted up was not a fun time. Sometimes you would spend an entire half an hour counting and recounting the dying flowers on your windowsill.

In your seventh month in the hospital, Nat texted you saying,

**“I heard you were up all night, huh? ;)”**

  
When you read it, you hadn’t thought much of it and thought that someone in the hospital had been reporting their concern for your growing lack of sleep to your best friend. But with doubtful thoughts flashing about in your head, and the winky face she sent you, you’d finally understood what she meant by that:  
Tony was sleeping with another woman. Suddenly, mentally clicking the simple 4-piece puzzle that was the text, your heart dropped and a heavy feeling entered your stomach. All you wanted to do in that moment was rip the IV needle out of your arm and walk back up to the room you and Tony shared, regardless of the slight pain you still felt throbbing through your healing legs. You didn’t even notice the tears running down your trembling face until you felt them cool down your hot, fidgeting hands.

Your eyes shot to the door when Dr. Cho entered, her eyebrows scrunched with a look of concern plastering her face, “[Y/N], are you feeling alright? You’re heart rate is increasing quite quickly. You might want to take deep breaths, honey, I think you might go into shock.” After a few more seconds of constant short and light breathing, Dr. Cho becomes more insistent. She puts a firm hand on your shoulder. “[Y/N], I want you to breathe with me. In…” she takes a heavy breath in and you follow with a few hiccups. “Good, good, that’s really good. Okay, now: out…” she says, releasing her breath - and you do the same. This goes on for another 10 minutes of so until your heart rate has lowered back to normal and your breathing is less ragged.  
Dr. Cho puts her hand on your cheek, “[Y/N], honey, do you want to tell me what’s wrong? Do you want me to call in a licensed therapist to talk this out with you? What happened? You’ve been here for about 7 months and not once have you panicked like this.”

  
“Dr. Cho, can y-,” you let a choked sob come through a little, “can you call Natasha Romanov and ask her to come down here the next moment she’s available please?”

  
“Of course, I’ll have her come down the next second she’s free.”

  
“Thanks,” you sniffle out and with her always-lovely smile, she leaves your room.

 

Finally, two week later, Nat comes in, her head still a bit shiny with sweat, and with a small cut on her face. “Hey [Y/N], I just came back from a mission. Sorry, this was the soonest I could see you, this year has been insane. Hydra’s still going at it strong, I guess... Dr. Cho called me up two weeks ago, what’s up?”

  
You give her a smile. A genuine smile. It was the first time you had used your cheek muscles in weeks, maybe even months. You felt them strain at the sudden movement, but you were just so happy to have someone you could talk to. You breathe in to say something but before you do, Nat interrupts, “hey, I thought you were out already?” You let a tear slip and you let out a sigh.

  
“Nope, I’ve been here since day one. Whatever you heard that day, Nat, it wasn’t me.” It took her about half a second to comprehend what you’d just said before her eyes widened, jaw dropping just slightly.

  
“You mean…?” her eyebrows and nose was scrunched, her lips now tugged upward - her face now embodying the look of disgust.  
You let the tears slip past, “yeh, Nat, I think so.”

  
“Oh darling, I’m so sorry,” she says, leaning over your legs and hugging you tight. “I’m sorry I’m so sweaty.”

  
You chuckle, “that’s alright. This is the first time anyone’s visited me in at least 5 months.” When you let go of the hug, she checks the time.

  
“Baby, I’m so sorry I have to go to another debriefing. The next mission won’t be too long, alright?” When you don’t respond, she tries the next best thing, “okay, here’s a promise I'll try to keep: I’ll be there when you get out of this god-forsaken hospital bedroom.”

  
“Can you make that a real promise?” you ask, holding your pinky finger out.

  
“Yes.” She hooks her pinky around yours and leaves, blowing you a little kiss before closing the door.

A month later, you were met up with Nat as the hospital released you. Due to your healing legs, the two of you only walked slowly to Tony’s room. Making your footsteps quieter the closer you got the the shut door. And the more silent your footsteps became, the better you could hear slight whispers.

 _“Oh god baby, you want me like that?”_  
_“ugh yeh”_  
_“mmm yeh, just like that”_  
_“Oh, Tony!”_

 

Once Nat noticed the tears rolling down your face, she grunts and kicks the door open. When your eyes go to the open bedroom door, you see Tony pulling blonde hair back. Your knees drop to the floor, making a resounding thud throughout the spacious room. It was then Tony’s eyes flashed from the front door to your eyes. Trying so hard to keep your burning, blurry eyes open, you hold his gaze.  
Almost immediately, he let go of the blonde’s hair and starts rushing to you with a blanket covering his lower half. Rushing towards you, all you could do was kneel there - watching him come over. You whimpered when a forceful, sex-smelling hand held your left shoulder. When the whimper was made, Nat’s legs booted his hand out of the way.

  
“Leave her alone, Tony.”

  
“Geez Nat, just let me speak to her,” he says, glaring at Nat with challenging eyes.

  
“Actually, I don’t think she wants to speak with you right now,” Nat replies back, throwing back an awfully judgmental face - she clearly being unfazed by his ‘intimidating’ look.

  
“I need to speak with her. It’s been what?” he looks to you, “5 months, right honey?” You don’t give him a response. You’re still looking at the floor. You’re mind was still occupied by throbbing, furious silence. He continues, “yeah, that’s right, about 5 months.”

  
Nat scoffs, “mhm that’s right, because it’s been five fucking months since you even bothered to visit her!”

  
Tony stands up and shoves his face closer to hers, harshly whispering, “hey Nat, if I were you, I wouldn’t talk to the most important man in this building, who also happens to be your boss, like that. Now, why don’t you scuttle along and let _my wife_ and I talk for a bit, huh? Does that sound good to you?” Nat grabs his collar and just as the two of them were about to make this into a full blown fight, you interject and stand up between them.

  
“STOP!” Your sudden movement made the two stumble away from each other. “The two of you just stop fighting! I think after 8 bloody months bound to my bed without my choice on any matter - even what I wanted to fucking eat - I can make my own choice right now.”

The two of them separate and look to you. “Ton-,” you try to say his name, but you pinched your lips and closed your eyes, preventing your dam of tears begin to shatter again. You opted to point at him instead. “You. You put some underwear and a shirt on or something, close the door, and then meet us out here on the couch later okay?”

  
Looking up into his eyes, he stared right back into yours with a bit of a pained look. He reaches his hand out to your cheek, but you lean back before he could touch you. “Okay,” he chooses to say instead.

You spent the next minute or so getting comfy in Nat’s arms on the couch. Finding a good nesting spot for your sobbing head right between her neck and should. “There there [Y/N], calm down, I’m here for you.”

You hear the bedroom door creak open. Upon hearing the door close again, you lifted your head up to see Tony in his usual, casual attire. “[Y/N]... I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to expla-”

  
“None of that, Tony,” you interrupt him. “At least sit down first before you start raising your defenses. A slight look of shock overtook his face as he sat down across from you and Nat.

After he’s seated, you ask again, “how long?”

  
His eyebrows raised. “H-h-how long? How long what?”

  
“I know you understand what I mean, Tony.”

  
“Uhmm... I don’t know, baby.” You wince at that nickname, taking you back to just a few minutes ago when you heard him say those words when he was taking an absolutely stunning whore.

  
“Bullshit. More PhDs than I can count but you can’t even do this simple calculation?”

  
“Well, it’s been happening for longer than I’d like to admit.”

  
“What? 5 months? 6 months? The whole 8 months?” He looked down, not a single word coming out of his mouth. “You’ve been cheating on me even before I got into the accident?” your shoulders droop down and you feel your heart clench onto itself. Your face wrinkles up and you can feel it getting hotter. He looks up to you, eyes reflecting the wrath of the afternoon light in them.

  
He nods.

With a frustrated scream, you stand up and stand to a corner of the room. Your words became harsher - more fiery, “what about in our first year of marriage? Were you faithful then?”

  
As his eyes just plainly stared back into yours, you’d learnt in your years of marriage what exactly he meant by that look. You press your palms to your eyes to block the tears from flooding and whisper, “but when? We were together all the time.”

  
Tony gives a sigh, “when I was at work or…”

  
“Or _what_ exactly?”

  
“Or when you were asleep.” With that, you gasped. The air was knocked out of your lungs and it suddenly got a bit harder to breathe. Giving yourself a couple of seconds, a sudden realisation came to mind,

  
“That’s why you always looked tired. No matter how early we slept.” This time, you let the tears burst past and you hands came down to clench the part of your shirt closest to your heart. “Oh god! You were never faithful to me, were you? Not once did you let go of your playboy personality, did you?” You let out a disgruntled scream, “I hope you’re fucking happy, wasting four years of our fucking lives like that guGH!”

  
With that, you paced towards the door, slammed it shut and walked to the lift, getting out of there as quickly as you could. The elevator music was not calming you down.

“Mrs Stark, your heart rate is rather faster than usual. Would you like me to take you to see Dr. Cho?” you hear F.R.I.D.A.Y. ask you.

  
“No Friday, just take me to my room.”

  
“Mrs Stark, I’m afraid you’re already at the allocated level for your room”

  
A frustrated sigh left your throat, “fine, just take me to the rooftop.”

  
“Since you have the authority to do so, this lift will now go up to the rooftop. But Mrs Stark, I would first like to inform you about the very grave repercussions of suicide. Firstly, understanding the root of your problems may lead you to find tha-”

  
“I’m not gonna kill myself, Fri. It’s fine.”

  
“Alright.” And she remained silent for the rest of the trip up.

Dozing off a little onto the wall of the lift, your head popped up at the sound of the elevator’s ding! signifying you’ve reached the rooftop. Getting out of the lift, you drag your way to a storage unit. The storage unit that held everything that you’ve accumulated from places you’ve lived before. Entering your six-digit code, you unlock the door and open it up to what looks like a quaint little living space. You turn the lights off, shove the dusty boxes off your old bed and just lay there, looking up to the white ceiling.

Sighing heavily, you close your eyes and let the sobbing take over you. Your arms were pulling your shaking shoulders together. Your body was shivering at how much you’d exposed yourself to someone you thought you could trust, only to have that trust breached. You begin scratching at the fat on your body, wishing you could just scrape it off. All while you were doing this, only one thought ran through your head again and again:  
_I was never enough for him._

**Author's Note:**

> I've just been feeling inspired to write somethings lately. Despite the fact that I am addicted to fics (shhh don't tell anyone), I have no idea what the standards are for a good/decent fic and I have no reputation to uphold so please, be honest with my work and give feedback or something! Any comment would be truly appreciated :)
> 
> Leave a kudo if ye want so I ken ye've liked it,  
> Thanks for reading 'til the end :0 
> 
> oH aLSO, I'm new to this writing thing and I don't think I have too many ideas roaming up there in my noggin, so if you'd like to suggest something... please, be my guest!


End file.
